


Window Shopping

by Severely_Lupine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severely_Lupine/pseuds/Severely_Lupine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple shopping trip takes an unexpected turn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Window Shopping

Remus looked through yet another shop window and sighed.

"What do Muggle women even like?" he wondered aloud.

Beside him, Tonks snorted. "You're asking _me_? My mum's a pureblood, and my dad's parents died before I was born."

Remus dug his hands deeper into his coat pockets and started walking down the sidewalk again. "At least you're a woman," he mumbled.

Tonks fell in step beside him. "I don't know why you didn't ask Hermione. She'd have been more help than I am."

Remus looked at her sidelong, not about to tell her the real reason he asked her--not willing to even admit it to himself.

"Yes, well, you know those kids. If I'd asked her, then Harry and Ron would have wanted to join us, then the others would have insisted on coming, and Sirius wouldn't have forgiven me for taking them away when their time to visit's already so short."

"You're right." Tonks laughed. "He does mope terribly when the kids aren't around. Almost as if he prefers the company of children to adults. I'm trying not to be offended by that." She winked at him. "I think he liked me better when I was eight."

Remus smiled but shook his head. "It's not children--well, it's a little children, but mostly, it's Harry." His voice got softer, and he began to drift into old memories. "Really, it's James . . ."

She startled him by looping an arm through the crook of his elbow, pulling herself closer to him as they walked. It would have been unforgivably rude of him to pull his hand from his pocket and extricate himself from her grip, so he continued walking as if nothing had changed. He didn't want to pull away, of course--quite the opposite--but he felt as if he should have.

"Thank you for coming," he said, accepting the distraction from thoughts of his dead friend.

"What do you normally get your mum for Christmas?" Tonks asked.

Remus avoided her eyes, instead focusing on the sidewalk in front of him as he walked. "Normally? Nothing. Two years ago, when I had the position at Hogwarts, I sent her a box of Honeydukes chocolates. She . . . didn't particularly appreciate them."

Tonks frowned at him. "_Your_ mother doesn't like chocolates?"

He smiled fondly at the disbelief in her voice, but the smile disappeared quickly. "She loves chocolates. She just . . . doesn't like magic. I'd thought it would be all right, since I'd chosen the least magical box they'd had, and I hadn't had time to shop anywhere besides Hogsmeade, but . . ." He let out a faint sigh.

In a flash, Tonks pulled her arm out of his and stepped in front of him, facing him with an indignant scowl. She'd moved so quickly he'd nearly ran into her.

"Your mother refused your gift?" she demanded.

Remus shrugged, uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. "I should have remembered. I should have just made the effort to find a Muggle shop."

Tonks shook her head furiously, and Remus noted with horror that her presently blonde hair was seeping red at the roots.

"She's your _mother_ and she refused a _gift_?"

Remus looked around at the Muggles passing them on the busy sidewalk. They were already attracting some strange looks. The situation was getting out of hand fast.

"Tonks, it's all right," he insisted, trying to get her attention and calm her down. "She just doesn't like to be reminded of--of what I am."

"You mean that you're a wizard," Tonks asked, glaring at him but mercifully keeping her voice low--dangerously low, "or that you're a werewolf?"

He felt his heart drop. He hated hearing those words come so blatantly from her mouth. "Both," he admitted, "but mostly the latter."

The red in Tonks's hair bled further into the blonde.

"Tonks, listen," he said quickly, pulling her by the arms to the nearest wall to allow the other pedestrians to pass more easily. "You've got to understand. What she went through with my--"

"I understand," Tonks seethed.

She was about to have an outburst, do something impetuous and foolish that would get them both in trouble. Remus could see it in her eyes . . . and in her hair.

"I _understand_ that your own _mother_\--"

Without thinking, Remus lunged. He grabbed her head in his hands, covering as much of her rapidly-reddening hair as he could, and locked his lips onto hers, silencing her.

Only the next moment, when he felt her arms slide around his waist and her body relax against him, did he fully realize what was happening. She moved her soft lips over his, and it felt simultaneously so right and so very wrong. He fought with himself, knowing he couldn't let this go on, but wanting nothing more than to keep kissing her until she stopped him.

It was the fear that she never would that finally spurred him to pull away from her. Unable to meet her eyes just yet, he stared at her scarf as he gently removed her arms from around his waist and took her hands in his own.

He finally looked at her, an admonition and an apology already on his lips, when he saw her hair.

It was bright bubblegum pink.

Glancing behind her, he saw a small child staring at them both with wide eyes. He looked at Tonks, who was grinning madly, her dark eyes shining, then back to the terrified child.

"Bollocks," Remus muttered.


End file.
